Wole Soyinka on Boko Haram
Very interesting read. Very blunt.
Quote:
Over the past year, Nigeria’s homegrown terror group Boko Haram has escalated its deadly attacks against Christian and government targets, with the aim of establishing a Sharia state in the country’s north.
Nearly 30 years ago, in the largely Christian heartland of a multireligious Nigerian nation, and at that nation’s pioneer institution—the University of Ibadan—a minister of education summoned the vice chancellor and ordered him to remove a cross from a site dedicated to religious worship. Some Muslims had complained, he claimed, that the cross offended their sight when they turned east to pray.
The don’s response was: “Mr. Minister, it would be much easier to remove me as vice chancellor than to have me remove that cross.” Christians mobilized. A religious war was barely averted on campus. Today the Christian cross occupies that same spot, with the Islamic star and crescent raised only a few meters away. As I observed at a lecture several years later, there has been no earthquake beneath, no convulsions of the firmament above that space, no blight traceable to the cohabitation of that spot by Christian and Muslim symbols.
I evoked that occurrence when the latest torch bearers of fanaticism—a group called Boko Haram—emerged. I did so to draw attention to the fact that religious zealotry is not new in the nation, nor is it limited to the “unwashed masses” who have been programmed into killing, at the slightest provocation or none, in the name of faith. Unfortunately, far too many have succumbed to the belligerent face of fanaticism, believing that any form of excess is divinely sanctioned and nationally privileged.
Sectarian killings—numbered in the thousands—preceded Boko Haram, much organized butch-ery, sometimes announced in advance, always tacitly endorsed by silence and inaction, escalating in intensity and impunity. It was consciousness of the geographical expansion and the increasingly organized nature of the fanatic surge and its international linkages that compelled me to warn on three public occasions since 2009 that “the agencies of Boko Haram, its promulgators both in evangelical and violent forms, are everywhere. Even here, right here in this throbbing commercial city of Lagos, there are, in all probability, what are known as ‘sleepers’ waiting for the word to be given. If that word were given this moment, those sleepers would swarm over the walls of this college compound and inundate us
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...oko-haram.html
An African island for AFRICOM?
Citing Stan:
Quote:
If the defense budget cuts go as planned, AFRICOM will be in the continental United States. Even farther from their target audience and even less effective.
Not within my power:o, but how about Ascension Island for AFRICOM? It is sort of African, has an airfield (run by a US contractor); is UK territory, has virtually no civilians and would be a hardship posting - so like much of Africa - so smaller in size I suggest.:eek: Best if the staff are stamp collectors too.:wry: Sub-tropical climate.
See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island or http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/
bomb suspect escapes from Nigeria police
and a police commissioner has been arrested :confused:
Quote:
The next day, the suspect was taken to his home just outside the capital, which police intended to search.
The police view this development as a serious negligence on the part of the commissioner of police.
... youths surrounded the police cars and pandemonium broke out, our correspondent says - during which the suspect managed to escape.
In a statement quoted by AFP news agency, police said Boko Haram members had attacked police escorting Mr Sokoto.
This is either huge incompetence or worse on the part of the police, our correspondent says.
Dialogue in Nigeria: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future
Dialogue in Nigeria: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future
Entry Excerpt:
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Boko Haram strikes again in Kano
Boko Haram strikes Kano (Northern Nigeria's largest city and an important center of Islamic learning). The police hq and other government offices were hit. Local news reports that scores of people are dead.
Ladies and gentlemen, we might be dealing less with a terrorist organisation than with an undeclared civil war! Expect the exodus of Southern Nigerians from the North and vice versa to intensify.
Quote:
Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram have reportedly bombed the Zone 1 Police Headquarters in Kano and other parts of the city in coordinated attacks.
The death toll is reportedly high.
Huge smoke was seen billowing from the scenes of the attacks which took place today.
More details about the casualties and extent of damage caused by the explosions to come in subsequent reports from our correspondent.
Boko Haram has been carrying out deadly attacks in several parts of Northern Nigeria, including the Christmas Day bomb attack at St Theresa’s Catholic Church which left at least 40 worshippers dead.
The suspected mastermind of that attack, Kabiru Umar, a.k.a. Kabiru Sokoto, was arrested last Sunday but allowed to escape by Zakari Biu, a notorious commissioner of police investigating the matter.
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/01/20/...-headquarters/
Expect the next set of targets to be Western interests
One of the goals of terrorist groups is to grab headlines. Since these events have attracted very little attention in Western media, expect these people to up their game by attacking Westerners and thus grabbing headlines.